


Adric

by delicatelyglitterywriter



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Gen, Serial: s121 Earthshock, adric lives, screw you canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-05
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2021-01-23 13:44:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21321148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delicatelyglitterywriter/pseuds/delicatelyglitterywriter
Summary: This is the story of how the 13th Doctor saved Adric and the life he led after he was rescued.
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor & Adric (Doctor Who)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 25





	Adric

**Author's Note:**

> spoilers for earthshock, obviously.
> 
> anyway i'm very upset by adric's death so i decided screw canon i'm going to make sure my son lives. so here's a purely self indulgent fic where i rescue him and set him up with a happy life :)

Sixty seconds.

The Doctor knew she had sixty seconds, give or take, to land the TARDIS, grab Adric, get him inside, and take off again, before the ship crashed into Earth. She wished she could give herself more time, but any further back and the risk to the timeline was simply too great. She had to wait until the very last minute to avoid causing too many ripples.

She just  _ really _ hoped it was enough and the was fast enough.

“Come on, Old Girl,” she pleaded quietly, looking up at the crystal in the centre of the console. “Don’t land too far away.  _ Please land close… _ ”

Yaz, Ryan, and Graham all knew her plan. She needed them if she was going to pull this off. Of course, she’d had to spend a half hour afterwards explaining to Graham why she couldn’t go back and rescue Grace, too, and that she was truly sorry. He’d been upset but understanding, and he seemed okay now. Determined, even.

“If I can’t save Grace, I can at least save someone,” he’d told her when she’d made the observation. They’d shared a knowing smile, lost ofn Ryan and Yaz, still too young to fully understand what they were feeling. 

The Doctor took a deep breath, preparing to land. Yaz stood facing the door, ready to go with her to drag Adric back to the TARDIS. Ryan beside Yaz, ready to manage the doors and close them the second they were back on board. Graham clung to the console next to the Doctor, ready to take control of the take off/landing lever, knowing they’d have to take off the instant the doors closed again.

“Ready?” the Doctor breathed, more to herself than her companions. Nevertheless, they gave the affirmation that they were, indeed, ready. The Doctor nodded and brought the TARDIS in, to land, counting down the seconds she knew it would take to fully materialise. “Three...two...one... _ now, Yaz! _ ”

The Doctor, Yaz, and Ryan lunged for the doors, Ryan throwing them open for Yaz and the Doctor just in time for them to not crash into it. The Doctor paused for a split second to see where they were and her heart dropped when she saw they’d have to climb up stairs and travel down two corridors before reaching the bridge. She took off running as fast as she could, knowing standing there and despairing wouldn’t do any good. She called to Yaz to hurry. She didn’t have to turn around to know Yaz was following right behind, hot on her heels.

It took twenty-three seconds to reach the bridge, by the Doctor’s count, and as she expected, Adric was standing there. He stared out the window at the rapidly-approaching ground, loosley clutching something in his hands.

“Adric!” the Doctor shouted, stumbling as the ship shook as it plummeted through Earth’s atmosphere. He turned around. 

“Wh-”

“No time for questions!” the Doctor shouted back, holding out a hand. “We have less than thirty seconds before this ship crashes, so come on!”

Adric stood stunned for a second, but it was a second too long for the Doctor. She grabbed his right arm, and Yaz his left and they ushered him from the bridge. He quickly fell in step with them, keeping pace surprisingly well for someone a good head shorter than them. The Doctor figured it must be his youth; his seemingly unlimited energy that all children tended to share.

“Where are we going?” Adric asked as they thundered down the stairs towards the TARDIS.

“Away from the front of the ship!” the Doctor answered, jumping the last three steps. “The front crashes first, you see.”

They had less than ten seconds left and the TARDIS was still 20 metres away. She hoped they could get to it in time.

“Is that the  _ TARDIS _ ?” Adric asked in disbelief, almost stopping. Yaz shoved him from behind - accidentally, of course, it was impossible to not shove him going at full speed - and he joined the Doctor in sprinting as hard as he could towards the police box. The Doctor didn’t answer, focused only on getting all three of them inside.

She, Yaz, and Adric all threw themselves through the doors at the same time, tripping over and collapsing on top of each other. By the time they were able to untangle themselves, the door was already shut, and the TARDIS already in flight. Ryan and Graham stood over them to offer them a hand up, which Yaz and Adric accepted, but not the Doctor. She sat back, shoulders slumping in relief, and she laughed breathlessly, her eyes shining with pure euphoria. SHe looked at each of them. Ryan, Yaz, and Graham grinned back at her. Adric, on the other hand, stood there with his hands on his hips.

“I have questions.”

“Yes, you always did,” the Doctor mused, still smiling. She pushed herself up off the floor and made her way back to the console, motioning for Adric to follow. “Ask away, Adric.”

“Who are you?”

“Come on, Adric, surely you recognise me!” the Doctor said , turning around to face him. “ _ Think _ , where have you seen me before?”

Adric studied her a minute, gaping when he realised. “ _ Doctor _ ?”

“Hello.” The Doctor gave him a little wave, before turning back to the controls.

“But...how? No, wait! You regenerated, didn’t you?”

“Correct again. Regenerated, oh,” she silently counted her regenerations on her fingers, “nine times since you last saw me.”

“But I thought Time Lords could only have 12 regenerations,” Adric said, following her around the console as she worked the controls. “And you were on your fifth regeneration when I last saw you; you told me that yourself! You can’t possibly have regenerated nine times since then!”

“Yes, that’s true, but on my last regeneration some...timey wimey science stuff happened,” she said, waving her hand. “Long, complicated story, which ends with Gallifrey sending me a bunch more regenerations.”

The Doctor didn’t have to look at him to know his eyes were wide and full of delighted curiosity. She couldn’t help but feel a wave of fondness for him. Her past self had never appreciated his wide-eyes wonder and endless curiosity nearly enough. 

“So, you’d be on your 14th regeneration now,” Adric said. The Doctor nodded in the affirmative. “So, Time Lords can regenerate into anybody they want?”

“Yep,” the Doctor said happily. Adric said nothing, processing what he’d just learned.

“So, does this mean I get to travel with you again? I mean, the you I travelled with, along with Tegan and Nyssa?”

The Doctor hesitated. “No.”

“But why?” Adric demanded, frowning. The Doctor sighed, dropping her head.

“Because they think you’re dead.”

“So? Just go back and show them that I’m not.”

“It’s not that simple,” the Doctor said, trying to be patient. She looked up at Adric sadly. “Crossing your own timeline, it’s a very dangerous thing. You could cause your past self to make decisions that would alter the whole timeline, or do something that would change the course of an event and cause people who should have lived to die, and people who should have died to live, and cause paradoxes. It can even cause your whole timestream to unravel. Understand?”

“But you crossed your own timeline to rescue me,” Adirc pointed out.

“Yes,” the Doctor sighed. “But it was carefully calculated; I knew how I could do it without causing too much damage to my timestream. It’s a ripple, nothing more. Taking you back to travel with my past self, Nyssa, and Tegan would cause a tsunami.”

“I see,” Adric said sadly.

“I’m sorry, Adric,” the Doctor said softly. “If I could, I would. If I could give you more time with me, and Tegan, and especially Nyssa - don’t give me that look, I know what she meant to you - I truly would.”

“What about now?” Adric asked hopefully. “I could travel with you now!”

The Doctor managed a half-smile. “Yeah, that would be a possibility. A risky possibility - we could end up unintentionally crossing the timestream, it happens sometimes - but a possibility. But I actually had a different idea in mind.”

“What?”

The Doctor reached into his pocket and pulled out his pad with his E-Space calculations on it. 

“I was thinking I could take you back to E-Space and you could live out the rest of your days hanging out and going on adventures with Romana. You two were quite the duo back in the day.” She flashed him a grin. “What do you say?”

Adric thought for a moment and then spoke quietly and sadly. “It’s the only viable solution, isn’t it?”

The Doctor nodded slowly. “The only solution that will work long-term.”

Adric bowed his head. “Okay.”

His voice cracked and the Doctor pulled him into a tight hug. He froze, but then relaxed into it, pressing his face against his shoulder.

“I’m truly sorry, Adric. If there was another way…”

Adric nodded shortly in understanding. They stood in silence until he had had enough and the Doctor turned back to the console, plotting the course into E-Space. 

“I just don’t really want to leave all this,” Adric said, watching her work. The Doctor smiled sadly at him.

“No, no one ever does. But at least this way you have a chance to still do it, just on a bit of a smaller scale. And at least this way, you get to live.”

For the first time since stepping on board, Adric smiled. “Yeah. Living’s good.”

The Doctor laughed in agreement, reaching up to nudge his cheek with her finger. “It is, isn’t it?”

“Will you be able to get back?” he wondered, his naturally curious tone returning.

“With these calculations, should be easy.” The Doctor paused her work, looking at Adric. “You did good, Adric.”

Adric beamed. “I know.”

The Doctor chuckled.

“Doctor, what’s E-Space?” Yaz asked. The Doctor glanced at her, feeling bad she’d momentarily forgotten about her three other passengers. 

“Yeah, and who’s Romana?” Ryan wondered.

“I’ll explain later, both of you,” the Doctor promised. “After we’ve dropped Adric off.”

* * *

The trip to E-Space was surprisingly smooth and easy. The Doctor made sure to congratulate Adric several times. Adric just grinned proudly, eagerly accepting the praise. On the Tharil’s planet, the Doctor walked a little way with Adric, sharing a few, precious, last minutes together. When they reached the front door of the place where the Doctor knew Romana would be staying, their laughs died out and they looked at each other, neither willing to say goodbye.

Adric threw his arms around the Doctor in a very un-Adric-like way. The Doctor hugged him back, the gesture making her hearts hurt. She often forgot he was just a kid, needing hugs as all kids did. 

“I’m really going to miss you,” Adric admitted when the hug ended. The Doctor nodded. 

“And I, you. You were always brilliant, Adirc, and I’m really sorry I didn’t tell you nearly often enough. But I want you to remember that, okay? You are absolutely ace.”

Adric smiled. “You are, too, Doctor.”

The Doctor smiled back. She shuffled her feet, glancing down at the ground before looking back at Adric.

“Go on, then. No better time to start E-Space adventures than right now. Give Romana my best. Oh, and don’t cause Romana  _ too _ much trouble.”

“A little is okay, right?” Adric asked, his eyes shining. 

“Absolutely. But don’t tell Romana I said that.”

The Doctor tapped his nose and he giggled. His smile faltered.

“I guess this is goodbye, then.”

“Yes, it is. Goodbye, Adric. Go be brilliant.”

“The same to you, Doctor.”

He turned and began to walk away before he could change his mind and make the Doctor let him travel with her. The Doctor turned to go back to the TARDIS, but stopped when she remembered something.

“Oh, Adric! One last thing!”

Adric turned. “Yes?”

The Doctor grimaced. “Please don’t tell Romana I jettisoned her bedroom. She’d lecture me until my ears fell off.”

Adric threw back his head and laughed. He then tapped his nose in a way he’d seen the Doctor do many times before.

“Don’t worry, Doctor. Your secret’s safe with me.”


End file.
